Uncovered
by Lynniame
Summary: When your grandmother asks you to come over to meet an old acquaintance you expect to find some old lady, only to find a young girl sitting on your grandma's couch... - Set after Redeemed (OC's included) (Please review)
1. Chapter 1 First meeting

Chapter 1 First meeting

Zoey

I was driving my car to my grandma's farm. She had asked if I could come over as soon as I possibly could. As high priestess of the House of Night in Tulsa I often had a lot of work on my hands. A week after her request to come and meet an old acquaintance I finally had time to come over. Stark had let her know in advance. Grandma sounded quite serious when she asked me to come over so this old acquaintance must be important to her. "Do you have any idea who it is?" Stark asked. "Yeah, I think I do. There was this woman she would often meet when I was little. Maybe now that everything has settled down and I have matured a lot she feels like sharing her mysterious friend." Stark nodded. We arrived at the farm and when we got out of the car we were immediately welcomed by my grandmother.

"U-we-tsi-a-ge-ya, it is good to see you again." She said while embracing me. She seemed a little nervous and hurriedly gave Stark a hug. "Come, come." She said and walked into her house. I stepped over the threshold and I wasn't met by the normal lavender sage smell that was always around my grandmother. Her scent was there but another scent was covering most of hers. I couldn't place the scent. Stark couldn't either and was suddenly in front of me instead of behind me. I had seen him get protective before but this was different. Then again I was feeling off because of that scent. I walked into the living room with Stark close by my side to find a girl in her early twenties sitting on grandma's couch.

"Zoey, Stark, this is my old friend Rysen Blackwater. Rysen, this is my granddaughter Zoey and her boyfriend Stark." The girl named Rysen had stood up when grandma introduced us and nodded when the introductions were out of the way. She did not shake hands with us. Strange. "Grandma… old friend?" I asked. "Why don't you sit, U-we-tsi-a-ge-ya." I sat down along with everyone else. "Rysen is really an old friend of mine because she looked like this when I first met her at the age of eighteen." My mouth fell open. This girl had to be an immortal of some sorts if she still looks like this. She was most definitely not a vampyre. Many questions crossed my mind and I could see Stark coming up with some of his own. Stark moved a little closer to me on the couch.

"You're not a vampyre so how have you not aged over the years?" I asked. "You must have asked yourself once 'Why do vampyres have no real natural enemy?'. You do have one or at least wolves used to be the protectors against rogue vampyres. Do consider that there weren't blood bags in, for example, the Middle Ages." I looked at Stark and saw the same look on his face that I knew was on mine. "Wolves?" Stark asked the stranger.

"Yes, wolves. We have existed in secret for millennia. Vampyres eventually came along and started to cause some trouble so we decided to take matters into our own hands and protect mankind from your kind. A lot has changed since the old times. Vampyres are a part of society now and we are most appreciative of this change. We are not werewolves like in those nice stories mankind has come up with. We are shapeshifters. We shift whenever we want to and everything we have on us in human form stays in-between when in wolf form. We cannot create any wolves, we are simply born as wolves. Humans are not allowed within our training camps but some, like your grandmother for instance, do know about us and are part of our society. I know this is a lot of information suddenly coming your way but with all that has been happening to you and with what is still happening I thought it would be a good idea to tell you that this world had another secret that you didn't know about. Darkness is rising as you are well aware, the white bull is set on the destruction of the black one and we cannot let that happen. Wolves will not be strong enough on their own and neither will vampyres so in order to save the world we will have to work together."

I could only manage to blink. This girl had been around for at least a century, she was a wolf and on top of all of that she was saying the world could soon meet its end. I knew things were still out of balance. I could feel it in my bones. "The white bull has set its eyes on the destruction of the black bull centuries ago… Why would he succeed now?" Stark asked. We already knew the answer. Neferet had shaken up everything well enough for the white bull to succeed in his plan. Rysen knew the question was already answered by ourselves and asked if we had any other questions.

"We barely know you and your kind and then you expect us to work together?" Stark said. I gave him a reassuring pinch in his arm to show him that it was all right. Rysen was grandma's friend after all. "In time, you will know more about my kind but for now I only have to know one thing. Will you be our allies in this battle or will you let the world fall? The wolves aren't that happy about working with vampyres because even now we are still natural enemies but we know this has to be done." Stark looked at me. sometimes I wished I wasn't Nyx chosen one and had never been marked that day. Everything was so much easier in normal high school. I took a deep breath and answered the wolf:

"We won't let the world fall. We saved it once from Neferet and we barely managed that. Defeating the white bull will need more. I will gather all of my friends and bring them up to speed. We all swore not to let Darkness taint this world and we hold to that oath." I don't think those words were totally mine. Being the chosen one at least had one perk. I was really good at public speaking. All hell would break loose once again. We would fight the Darkness once again. We would win once again. Rysen stood up from her place on the second couch and said:

"Sylvia, it was a pleasure to see you again and again sorry for your loss." Then she turned to me and I felt obliged to stand up. Stark rising along with me. "I would prefer to meet at the training camp, it's in these woods so you don't have to travel far. My preference has not anything to do with your House of Night but more with the wolves. When on grounds that aren't their own they tend to cause unnecessary trouble and when on our own lands any wolf tends to listen better to their alpha. The alpha is, in case you didn't know, the leader of the pack and in our case the leader of the whole community. If you truly have problems with coming onto our grounds then we'll have to find some neutral ground but close by that would only be the grounds we are now on." I had no problems with going to the wolf camp. I could see Stark didn't mind either but he didn't for a whole other reason.

As we drove back home not having any more time to spare to stay at grandma's place I asked him about it. "You're okay with going there because you'll get a good sense of their strengths and weakness, don't you?" He simply gave me his lazy smile indicating that I was absolutely right.


	2. Chapter 2 Council meeting

Chapter 2 Council meeting

Zoey

The American high council had gone their separate ways in order for America to find peace again. The red fledglings appearing all over the continent had people worried but with a council member visiting and explaining how things are now people started to calm down again. I knew their visits were not done yet but with this wolf suddenly turning up I could not do anything else but call them back to Tulsa. They all understood the necessity of coming back. One after the other returned and reported on their visits to the other Houses.

I called an official meeting as soon as they had all returned. I tried to explain everything as well as I could.

"Wolves? Seriously? Our world was already weird enough as it was with vampyres, Raven mockers, immortals and the white and black bull." Aphrodite exclaimed. It did not happen often but I absolutely agreed with Aphrodite. Our world already had enough supernatural creatures.

"Isn't it awesome that there are people who can shift into wolves? I mean hello… wolves!" Stevie-Rae, always the optimist. I do think that the fact that her affinity is with Earth and wolves are very close to nature also helps with her optimism. It's nice that at least someone likes the idea of shapeshifter wolves being added to the list of what-makes-this-world-a-weird-place.

"No, pumpkin, it's not awesome." Aphrodite retorted. Always the sunshine of our group. I know she keeps things real but sometimes she could do a little less bitchy. At least she's our bitch and doesn't make my life into a living hell anymore. Though the world seems to have taken it upon itself to make sure it still happens.

"So…" Darius started. "We're just going to that camp of theirs and assume they have the world's best interest at hand?" Darius was right to question them. I did too.

"I know it's all confusing and I don't know why those wolves kept themselves a secret but they show up when we need them so for now we just have to trust that they don't have another agenda. I doubt they have, the girl we met was very kind. She reminded me of Thanatos. They all nodded and put their hands over their hearts in honor of our fallen priestess of the dead.

"We have to trust them and as soon as they give us any reason not to we will make sure they don't do anything that could harm you guys." Stark said speaking for all the warriors gathered. Darius and Rephaim nodded at his comment. Those wolves wouldn't know what hit them if it came to it.

"I have an address where we can park our cars and then we have to make our way through the rest of the woods on foot. Rysen promised she or another wolf would be at that address to guide us. All I can say is wear something comfortable because I have no idea how long we have to walk. Anyone any questions that I might be able to answer?" No one had questions so the council was dismissed. We would go to those wolves and we had no idea what to expect. I just hoped their alpha was as nice as Rysen.


	3. Chapter 3 Meeting the alfa

Chapter 3 Meeting the alpha

Zoey

We arrived at the address that Rysen had given us and there was no one there. "So much for 'Someone will be there to pick you up.'." Aphrodite said. Then we heard some leaves rustle and looked at the spot where the sound had come from. A wolf came walking out of the bushes and shifted back. "I can't just stand out in the open until you arrive, can I?" We all stared. Stark and I hadn't seen Rysen shift because she had simply left on her motorcycle. All of us hadn't known what to expect from shifting. Rephaim maybe knew a little about shifting but with him it always hurts. This wolf didn't seem in pain. The wolf was a female of average height and she had auburn hair. She had a little tan and that made her green eyes pop out. Her clothes were simple. Green shirt and khaki pants with sandals. No weapon or anything out of the ordinary. "I'm Leone, Rysen was a little busy so she sent me to get you. Any questions in advance? Feel free to ask whatever whenever." Leone seemed nice. I could see the others thought the same. "How far do we have to walk?" Aphrodite asked. "Not that long. I was here in two minutes while running and I didn't even run that fast. You won't be sweating when we arrive, I can assure you." Leone already picked up on Aphrodite's personality. Interesting. We walked for five minutes in silence until we saw some tree houses which were connected to each other with bridges and some people were watching us closely. "Those are guards on one of our perimeters. That are the houses they live in. We all choose what we want to do so they are there because of their own free will." Leone explained. "Hey Leone, the vamps I suppose?" One of the males above us said. "Yup." She answered. "They really have only three warriors?" someone else said. "Yeah, and then the other can kick your butt with their elemental affinity only that blonde over there has no powers that could protect her in a fight but she has one of those warriors bound to her so I wouldn't underestimate any of them, Kay. But you always seem to do that with everyone." I was surprised Leone knew this much about us. Did they gather all that information on us or did she simply know form being around us for a few minutes? I was impressed nonetheless.

We continued walking and found another perimeter station, as Leone had called it, to our left. They watched us but didn't seem on their guard. They simply watched their incoming guests. "Why are none of them on their guard." Stark asked. "I thought Rysen said that we were natural enemies?" Leone smiled and answered: "They are all fast enough to act when they need to. Wolves communicate through body language and normal speech so even if it seems like we're not on our guard we could still be watching you very closely. And you're here to talk about how to save the world and you know that you need us as much as we need you. Pick a fight and you won't walk out of here alive." She said that last sentence so cheerful that you almost wouldn't notice the threat she made. I reminded myself that she was just making sure we wouldn't do something stupid.

After a few more minutes of walking we heard more voices. We walked onto a path that was wider than the paths we had been on and we looked around. There were a lot of treehouses with massive bridges and on my right the path led into what I assumed were main grounds. "Beautiful isn't it?" Leone asked us. We all nodded. "Come on, let's go to the alpha." We followed Leone over the grounds. There were some wolves that stared but most went their own way. Leone was greeted by many wolves and she made sure to greet every single one of them back. "I know everyone's name, where they come from and what they want to do when they finish their training here. That way they always have someone to talk to. I'm pretty much the guidance counselor here."

After another two minutes we arrived at a large field with sparring rings, weapon racks and everything that a warrior needed for training. All of the rings were empty except for one. Rysen was fighting a male wolf who looked like the ultimate warrior. He was muscled all over, shirtless, blue eyes, dark hair, tanned skin, he looked like someone you don't easily mess with. We approached them and Stark whispered to me: "He's quite impressive, he must be the alpha." Leone started to laugh. "Don't repeat that, his ego is already big enough as it is." I looked at Leone with a confused look on my face. A look that all of my friends had. Rysen threw to warrior to the ground like he was nothing more than a sack of potatoes. "Hi guys, I'm glad you all came." She said when walking out of the ring and grabbing a towel and some water. "Rysen is our alpha." Leone then said. I couldn't believe it. "That's why you reacted on my scent at your grandmother's farm. The alpha is stronger than any wolf of its pack as long as the alpha deserves to be the leader of the pack or in our case the leader of the community." Rysen added. "I didn't mention it because at that moment I didn't know how you would react but you came here without knowing who our alpha was so now I know I can trust you."

"How are you stronger than him?" Stark asked. Rysen smiled. "She's stronger because she is the most skilled warrior among us. Even if she doesn't look like it." Rysen growled at that. It was a strange sound but it didn't make me want to run away from her. It was just the way they communicated and it didn't bother me as much as I thought it would. "This is Jaerah by the way. He is one of the best warriors around and he's my warrior as well. Yes, we have oath bound warriors as well. He is also my insufferable brother. Key word here being insufferable. We can bind more than one warrior to ourselves so you'll meet other wolves soon that are bound to me as well. Male and female." She took another sip of her water and said: "I'll go take a shower and put on some more fabric and Leone will show you to the place where the meeting will take place." Rysen had been wearing shorts and a sports bra and nothing more. She was truly beautiful. Hair black as the night sky, eyes blue like sapphires with a darker blue ring around the pupil, tanned skin and a perfect body. "Leone make sure the rest is notified of the meeting. Fifteen minutes and then it will start. Jae, get in the shower and go to the meeting place as soon as you're done." Rysen ordered. "See you guys in fifteen minutes." She said and then walked away.


	4. Chapter 4 Second meeting

Chapter 4 Second meeting

It had been exactly fifteen minutes when Rysen walked into the room. Wolf after wolf had walked in and sat down on the other side of the room. The room was specially made for meetings and there was nothing more than a table with a lot of chairs around it. The wolves weren't staring at all, they were talking among each other like friends. We were sitting there a little awkward but it was only for a few minutes because Rysen had walked in already.

"Now that we're all here, let's start discussing this alliance." Rysen said when she had taken her seat at the head of the table. When Rysen had walked in all the wolves that were still standing or sitting on the table sat down on their seats. Rysen didn't demand respect, she simply got it.

"As for the introductions, everyone that's Zoey Redbird, the granddaughter of Sylvia, the High Priestess of Tulsa's House of Night and the head of the American Vampire High Council." The wolves nodded at my introduction and I was surprised Rysen bothered to mention more than my relationship to grandma. "And that's Stark, Aphrodite, Darius, Damien, Stevie-Rae, Rephaim, Shaylin and Shaunee. You already know their relationships and powers so I'm not going to mention that." Another nod from the wolves. "Well, I think you guys would like to know somewhat more about this bunch of weirdo's" Rysen was so easy going and cheerful that I forgot she was their alpha, an unchallenged leader, she was their friend and same as with me they had chosen to follow her.

"Let's start with the female on my right. This is Thalia, my second in command and best and oldest friend. We have affinities too but we simply call them powers and not many have powers. Thalia has none, I have telekinetic powers which simply means I can move everything without a heartbeat with my mind. That power has not been seen since the very first wolf who was blessed with these powers to protect all the other wolves that were yet to come." Thalia had black hair like Rysen and it was braided back into a very long braid so was Rysen's hair at the moment. They looked like each other but the only difference between the two was Thalia's eye color. Rysen had intense sapphire eyes and Thalia's were bright green which was a beautiful contrast with the rest of her. I noticed everyone was wearing black with a bit of silver. There was a silver emblem over their hearts which formed a full moon with a spear through it. It made me think of Kalona in some way.

"The wolf next to Thalia is the one I always turn to when someone needs to start talking or stop talking, this is Yana." I was a little confused by the way she had introduced her and when I looked at my friends I saw the same confusion on their faces. "You mean she's your torturer and assassin?" Darius said. It didn't surprise me Darius had fully understood what Rysen said. He might be young but he was still a well-trained Erebus warrior. "Yep, I am." The wolf said. Yana didn't sound like a torturer or assassin and she certainly didn't look like it. She was beautiful. Her hair was dyed dark red, she had dark brown eyes and light skin. "I know, I don't look like my profession." Yana said with a smirk. "You are way too cute for what you do but it does make you so much better at it." Rysen added. Yana gave her a look that would have send me running for my life if she ever looked at me like that. Rysen simply smiled. "Yana doesn't like to be called cute." Thalia explained. "In fact, she hates it. Only Rysen can call her cute without Yana going feral." They were good friends, all of them. "Yana has an interesting power. She can take people's pain and also inflict a great deal of pain. That's why she's so good at what she does." Rysen said.

"Here on my left we have my third in command and worst pain in my ass, Ciara. She can move water to her hearts content but cannot summon it. Through years of training she can now also freeze and boil the water she's bending. Her second language is sarcasm and she is the most sassy wolf around but I wouldn't have her any other way." Ciara smiled at that. I do think that when your alpha says something like that you are honored. I know I feel honored when Nyx compliments me.

"You've met Jaerah. The others could not join us as they are currently in meetings with other alphas. Normally I send my females but this is about war so I send my males. These three females are also oath bound to me. We are all warriors but in a way I'm the queen. I'm also called the high alpha of the wolves and that means that I'm the alpha of all the wolves and always have the last say on every matter. You'll soon meet the rest of my warriors and we'll soon explain more about the wolves but for now I'd like to talk about the bull of Darkness."

"How do you know that he's most likely going to succeed if we don't stop him? I haven't had a vision about it and I pretty much always do. Kramisha has not written a prophecy about it yet either. So how do you know?" Aphrodite asked. She was being impolite but Rysen didn't seem to mind or she was good at hiding it.

Rysen pushed the document in front of her over to us and Aphrodite snatched it away immediately. Rysen smiled and with her affinity she moved it to my hands. "Seriously?!" Aphrodite exclaimed. "Yep, seriously." Rysen said smiling. I had to give it to her she knew how to handle Aphrodite. I looked at the papers and it were all kinds of attacks. Some were terrorist attacks that were looked at in magickal perspective and there turned out to be some involvement from Darkness. Other papers were brutal murders, all wolves. Many other cover ups where the wolves found out that it was something dark that had done those crimes. "That sure is some bullpoopie." Is all I said. Stark had been reading over my shoulders. After we were done flipping through those pages we gave them to the rest of your company.

"You can see that things have gotten out of hand. Humans don't know what to do but we have wolves stationed everywhere. We have lawyers, police officers, detectives, doctors, name it and we have someone with that profession. That's why we got our hands on those documents." Rysen was getting more serious with the minute.

"How do you propose we do things from now on? We can't just attack the bull but we also can't let it attack us." Stark said. Always the warrior, always the protector. "Wolves all over the world are getting ready. There are more and more guards around our perimeters, as well as more wolves checking up on the humans. We do not know what he's planning only that he wants to destroy the black bull. The black bull came to me and said I had to talk to you. He said that he would sent someone or something, he wasn't very clear about that, to help us. Let's assume it's someone, we have absolutely no idea who it is only that this someone will come to the camp when vampyres and wolves have their allegiance. Hopefully it won't take too long for this person to come."

We still had a lot to talk about but the wolves didn't know anymore then they had shared with us. Rysen and Thalia spoke with us about what we can do from the House of Night. Erebus warriors had to be notified and the High Priestesses of the other Houses all over the world had to know. Once again our story had to be told, now we had to tell it to the world. "Good that the whole council is back otherwise Z would have a lot of work on her hands." Shaunee said with a grin. "Yeah Z, you have been doing a lot lately. Aren't you tired yet?" Stevie-Rae added. "Nah, after Neferet I can handle some extra work."

Rysen and her wolves had been watching us with a slight smile on their faces. "Why are you smiling like that?" I asked politely. Thalia answered this time. "We were once young and all we had to worry about was training and school. It's nice to see the youth have fun with each other." Rysen bristled then. "Yeah, okay you had a tough childhood." I looked at Rysen urging her to say more with still staying polite. "Children of the alpha are their heirs. The strongest has the right to be the next alpha. Normally the males easily win and then compete each other while leaving their sisters alone. I was way stronger than anyone. I could beat my father in a fight when I was only fourteen. My father was 356 years old back then. He did not like a female heir and pretty much made my life a living hell without anyone knowing about it. Real nice. My brothers eventually found out and demanded he step down. He wouldn't and so they told the rest of the packs and then he was executed." I concluded that wolves are the opposites of vampyres because we are all about the females.

"Since we can't talk about anything else let's show you the rest of the camp and tell you more about the wolves." Rysen offered. "Good idea." I said.


	5. Chapter 5 Meeting the wolves

Chapter 5 Meeting the wolves

Zoey

When we walked outside I couldn't believe my eyes. The wolves had come out everywhere and anywhere you looked there was someone doing something. They looked happy. "Why does it look like you all just woke up?" Aphrodite asked a little sarcastically. "Because they just woke up." Rysen simply said. We all gave her an incredulous look and she smiled and pointed up the sky. The full moon was casting a beautiful light on the camp. Then it dawned on me. "Full moons still bother us. The day before we're extremely tired and then we sleep until the moon reaches its peak then we are all ADHD patients. The stronger you are the sooner you'll feel the full moon that's why I was sparring when you arrived. I cannot sit still at the moment and barely have any focus at all." I was surprised by her words because I hadn't noticed any change with Rysen but now that I thought about it again she had been moving her hands and changing positions in the meeting. She hid it well.

"Why would you meet with us on the night of a full moon if you're so bothered by it?" Stark asked Rysen nicely. "Because this time of the month shows best what the wolves are about. We are primal, feral, overprotective, a pain in the ass and most of all, incredibly loyal to one another. This is all visible during a full moon where normally it's a little less visible to outsiders." Rysen explained things quite nicely. I understood what she was saying and I could see how much she cared for her wolves.

Suddenly three gargantuan wolves came running out of the woods. I wasn't expecting that to happen and Stark was close in a split second feeling my dread through the bond. "Shift back, you guys. You're scaring our guests." Thalia said to the three wolves. One of them was as black as the night, one was rust colored and one was a simple brown. The black one was the biggest and he had an aura like Rysen's around himself, a leader's aura. They shifted back and three warriors appeared. There is no other way to explain what they looked like, they were warriors in every way. The color of their fur was also the color of their hair in their human forms. The black haired male walked to Rysen and kissed her right on the mouth while wrapping his arms around her. Thalia explained why he did that. "They're mates, a deep connection that goes deeper than mere love, and when there are unknown males around Shay loves to show that Rysen is his. Rysen also loves to make sure no female gets any ideas. That's the primal thing that Ry was talking about. The full moon doesn't help with that."

"Everyone meet Shay. Shay be nice." Rysen said with a stern look at him. "Shay is also bound by blood oath and yeah from one came the other and ba-da-bim-ba-da-boom, we found out that we're mates." Rysen pecked Shay on his cheek and then walked out of his embrace. "This is Axillius, Axel for short." She said when pointing to the brown haired male. "And this is Mike, which is short for Michael. Both are bound by oath to me. Which makes a total of seven warriors bound to me. Three females and four males to be precise. Before I forget… Shay is an excellent swordsman but has no power, Axel can manipulate weapons, so he can have a sword in his hand and then suddenly it changes into a dagger. Mike is someone you simply shouldn't mess with because he's one hell of a brute, and my other brother." She hit him playfully on the arm with the mention of him being her brother. "I have two other older brothers and two younger ones and a younger sister but they live in my estate outside of Tulsa." She said my estate as if it was the most normal thing in the world. Then I remembered that Rysen had been around for a very long time or at least I had the feeling she was.

"How old are you actually?" It came out of my mouth before I could think about it but Rysen didn't seem to mind me asking. "I'm really old and so is the rest." She said with a smirk. "Seriously?! You're not going to tell us the one thing we're very interested in knowing." Rysen smiled and she answered in a teasing way. "Age is merely a number." We all scoffed at that. The wolves started laughing at that.

"This could be the start of a strong alliance." Thalia noted. Rysen nodded at her second and looked at me with a smile. Her smile faltered as we heard some low growl. That growl sent a shiver down my spine and seeing Rysen's face turn into the face of an alpha going to put some wolves back on their place. It wasn't terrifying but that was probably because her anger wasn't directed towards me.

Rysen and her wolves moved as one to where to growl had come from. Thalia motioned for us to follow them. We followed suit. Two wolves were entangled in a fight and were baring their teeth. If those teeth were ever bared at me I would run as fast as I could in the other direction. These two wolves weren't as big as Shay, Axel and Mike had been which was at least a bit of a relief. It was a mess of dark and blond fur and teeth. Rysen then moved so fast my vampyre eyes could barely follow. She shifted in mid-air and landed between the two wolves. With one spine shivering growl the two wolves were separated and shifting back into their human forms. Rysen shifted back as well but I barely noticed how she asked for an explanation because I was mesmerized by Rysen's beauty. She wasn't a white wolf no, she was carved out of the stars itself. Her fur was the color of pure starlight. I had never seen something more beautiful than Rysen in wolf form.

"Sorry for that. It won't happen again." She said with a final glance towards the two wolves and snapping me out of thought.

"You are one hell of a beautiful wolf." I said to her. "Holy smokes, our High Priestess just used a cursing word." Aphrodite exclaimed and put her hand to her head like she was fainting. "I do think we all agree on this, I have never seen something that beautiful and I have seen Nyx appear before me and Kalona's wings turn from raven's black into white like the moon." Shaunee said. Rysen smiled. It was a different kind of smile. This was a smile meant for friends. "You know…" I said "…I don't think it's the start of a great alliance. I think it's the start of an amazing friendship." Rysen nodded with a smile still on her face and said: "I absolutely agree."

Nyx

"I don't think it's the start of a great alliance. I think it's the start of an amazing friendship." My beloved high priestess said without my help.

"I absolutely agree." The high alpha of the wolves said to her.

It was time for their promised explanation…


	6. Chapter 6 Meeting 'someone'

Chapter 6 Meeting 'someone'

Rysen

My wolves had spread out again because they had a lot of work to do. I gave the vampyres a tour. They did not ask many questions to my own surprise. They watched and listened as I walked through camp with them. The full moon was annoying me greatly because every movement caught my eye and every noise made its way into my ears. I already had the most heightened senses in the world and now the moon was making everything practically unbearable. My focus was pretty much gone and my mind was all over the place. A bad case of ADHD so to say. Those two wolves fighting had not made my mood any better. The full moon was bothering everyone more since the balance had been turned upside down but it seemed to affect me more than the others.

Stark, Darius and Rephaim were talking to each other about the wolf way of fighting and about me. Normally I would not have mind them analyzing me. It's something that warriors do but now it was highly annoying. "Would you please continue your conversation about me when I am not around?" They were surprised I had heard them in the first place but then again, they had never asked how good my senses are. They had asked who had the better senses but that had been all. I had seen many warriors of many kinds in my time and those three still had much to learn. You don't discuss the person that might be a threat when she is within a mile radius. How stupid can you be in the first place?

Zoey was more than I had expected. That was certainly a surprise, a pleasant one. I had not anticipated to be walking next to the High Priestess she was meant to be. At Sylvia's farm she had been a simple vampyre who had been chosen by Nyx to be her eyes and ears on Earth, nothing special. The girl walking next to me now was a powerful High Priestess chosen by her goddess and destined for greatness. I could see what the goddess had seen in this girl.

We were walking near the edge of the forest when I felt a tug in my core. Knowing it was not one of my warriors contacting me through our bond I decided to follow where the feeling was leading me. The vampyres had no idea where I had planned on going so they followed suit not thinking any of it.

We arrived at a clearing in the woods and I looked around. There was nothing to see beside the usual sight that the forest provided. I must have had a puzzled look in my face because Zoey asked if something was wrong. "I don't think something is wrong. I felt a strange power tug at my core and decided to follow it only to find nothing here. It might be the person or thing that the black bull would send but I don't see anything that looks out of the ordinary." Then the flapping of strong wings could be heard and the leaves of the trees moved on the sudden wind that was brushing through the woods. A crack sounded and when I looked up at the branch where the noise had come from I saw an immortal warrior with moon colored wings sitting on the tree branch.

"What in the name of the moon are you doing here?!" I asked him. I was startled that the black bull had meant Kalona when speaking to me about someone giving us an explanation. I guess Kalona would know how the white bull thinks since he was part of Darkness for a long time. The vampyres were shocked at the way I spoke to him so I decided I better explain myself before Aphrodite opened her mouth and said something about my attitude. "Kalona and I have known each other for many years and when he fell from the Otherworld and did what he did, I was the one that put him in that prison under the ground. We knew each other before that as well because the wolves were created by his father long before Kalona was even born. Since his father, the moon, decided to leave his place as a deity of the moon and moved on, the responsibility of the wolves fell on Kalona. He epically failed as the new guardian of the wolves and at that time I was already the High Alpha of the wolves so he requested that I take care of the wolves. I did it because I wanted to help a friend out and because I still owed him for the time he saved me from my father, who tried to kill me. Then he screws up in epic proportions and I was the only one that could come up with a plan to give him some time to think about his actions without destroying people's lives in the process. Then he comes back, finds his way back to the path of Light, goes back to the Otherworld and stays with the love of his life and all the while he did not visit once. And that folks is why I'm talking to Nyx' immortal warrior and lover in the way that I did."

"Never piss her off." was all that he said.

"You are one hell of an insufferable immortal bastard, Kalona." I said sighing.

"Hello to you too." He said with his 1000 Watt grin. Stupid moon warrior.

"How old are you?!" The vampyres then said in unison when they came over their shock of me and Kalona being close friends.

"Old." I answered. "Older than Kalona, younger than Nyx." They all huffed and scoffed. They badly wanted to know my age. Very funny.

"To answer your question, Rysen. I came here to explain since the bull had no time to explain. I am also here because Nyx requested I help you and hopefully make amends with you along the way."

"Good luck with the latter, you prick. Let's get back to the conference room. I have a feeling we have a lot to talk about."

With that I turned around and walked back to camp. Kalona had most definitely pissed me off. I could forgive what he had done in the past but I could not forgive nor forget that he had forgotten about his best friend. So much for best friends.

"You better not expect to be on good terms with that bastard within a few days. Nyx, because then you'll be in for a nice surprise." I muttered under my breath, soft enough to be inaudible for the vampyres and loud enough for Kalona to hear.


	7. Chapter 7 Third meeting

Chapter 7 Third meeting

Zoey

On our way to the conference hall where we had our meeting before I thought about Rysen's history with Kalona. On one hand it was good that she knew him and his story because that saved me and my friends a lot of explaining. On the other hand is their history a bad thing because Rysen seemed incredibly pissed just now. If even Rysen can't hide her emotions anymore then you just know that things aren't good. Hopefully they could make amend as for now I just hope neither of them do something to hurt each other. Kalona is immortal and no matter how old Rysen might be, she can still die. I don't think the full moon is helping Rysen's mood. I don't know her that well, but she does seem more on edge now then she did at my grandmother's house. It was why she wanted us to come tonight so we could see them as they are when they're the least focused and I have to say that it is interesting to see the changes in Rysen.

We came into the conference hall and sat down at the table. More seats were now filled because of the arrival of Shay, Axel and Mike. Shay's show of affection had reminded me of the moments when Stark got jealous because of Erik or Heith. I do think he remembered it himself because he had looked at me with his eyes slightly closed looking through his lashes with that lazy grin of his. We had all walked back in silence and even now no one opened their mouths. The wolves weren't saying anything because of Rysen's bad mood but even Kalona who had to give the explanation remained silent. Suddenly the most unlikely person asked how long we had to wait on an explanation. It was Damien. "One thing I've learned when she's in a bad mood" Kalona nodded in Rysen's direction "Is to let her simmer for a while and then start a conversation or she'll keep insulting you." I hoped Rysen or any other wolf would step in and say that it wasn't true, but they didn't. We all understood now that we should never get on her bad side.

"Might as well start explaining so we can get this business over with. It's not like you like being here or you would have stepped by already" Rysen practically spat Kalona's way. Never had I heard anyone talk to him that way, not even Neferet. "Maybe we should postpone this meeting until tomorrow so you and the rest of the wolves can concentrate better and your guests are less afraid you'll leap at my throat." Kalona then offered. He shouldn't have. The look Rysen gave him for daring to suggest it gave me the chills. "Maybe we should talk about it now so we don't have to come back here tomorrow and ruin another pair of shoes." I never think I would think this but Aphrodite saved this meeting. In her own special way but she lifted much of the tension in the room. "You heard her, start talking." Rysen then coldly said. "Fine." Kalona spat her way.

"The white bull feeds on chaos, destruction, death and the like. This world has experienced a lot of that lately. Even the humans are out of balance and the gun violence is rising. More and more people have some kind of mental problem or a label because people can't seem to get things organized. The vampyres here in Tulsa have had a lot to endure partially because of me." He looked apologetic for a moment and then continued. "Everyone is giving in to the darkness in their hearts and with that the power of the white bull only increases. It also means that the black bull's power is decreasing. Vampyres and wolves have been natural enemies for eons. Wolves were created long before the vampyres and they did not like sharing. I already noticed their hatred towards sharing the supernatural world when the raven mockers and I came along." He got an incredibly angry look from Rysen but then again, he had been stupid enough to look her way when saying that. "The white bull never came to power because the wolves were the superior species in the supernatural world and their powers are greater than that of vampyres. Vampyres have risen in power over the years and now the species are equal. The wolves must live in secrecy because humans would never accept their kind and they despise vampyres for having the opportunity to walk among humans even though the wolves were the ones protecting the humans."

"I don't need a history lesson, Kalona, besides I could give a better history lesson than you considering I didn't have my head up my ass. You do know it isn't a hat?" Rysen interrupted rudely. This girl, woman, female, whatever you call someone who's been around for an unknown amount of time, could give Aphrodite a run for her money. The easy-going and cheerful Rysen was completely gone and here was someone who has an attitude that shut everyone up. Everyone except Kalona. He's lucky he's immortal. "I get that you're pissed, Rysen, but these vampyres don't know the history and that knowledge is needed to understand everything. And I never wear hats, ruins my hair." I saw a ghost of a smile on Rysen's face when he added that last piece. They had been friends for a long time and you didn't just throw that away. She was pissed, but it wasn't impossible for Kalona to make amends. I hoped.

Kalona continued: "I'll skip a piece of the history since I don't want to waste anyone's precious time." A dirty look in Rysen's way. "The rivalry between vampyres and wolves is what the bull has been feeding on. The rift between the two has only become bigger as the vampyres assimilated into the human community. Wolves have lost a lot of their ancient power of protection because humans don't believe in them anymore. Rysen was once a force to be reckoned with and no one dared oppose her. Nowadays she has to do a lot to maintain her status as High Alpha. In the past year alone, she has had to face six challenges. Every wolf has the right to challenge their alpha and every alpha has the right to challenge the High Alpha. Before the vampires were known to humans she was challenged about once every century. The wolves don't want to hide anymore and the vampyres don't want to share their supernatural spotlight. The bull is feeding on this tension. It's one of the reasons why all of you have to do this together. The other reason is because wolves are still the better warriors and they have more warriors. The white bull isn't alone. He has an army of creatures of Darkness. The wolves have fought these creatures time and time again. Rysen found a way to lock them away, but Neferet tore open that prison. You're going to need the numbers and the wolves can provide that. I know it's all a lot to take in. If there are any questions, feel free to ask them."

"So the red vampyres were created by Neferet to be her loyal army. How do we know the white bull doesn't have any control over them?" Thalia asked. I realized they had been keeping tabs on us since they seemed to know exactly what had been going on ever since I became a vampyre. They were probably making sure to know what their rivals were up to. The fact that they knew why the red vampyres were created was troubling. I never told anyone besides the people I trust. Everyone else thought Nyx had saved these vampyres from Neferet and had then decided to create more red vampyres. The wolves knew the truth and I didn't know how. Maybe I could ask one of them. When they were in a better mood perhaps. "You can never know for sure but may I remind you that you were once controlled by darkness and you are doing quite fine and aren't scared to be controlled anymore." Thalia did not like Kalona revealing a bit of her past. Rysen didn't either because she growled slowly and very low. "You may not reveal such things about me and mine, I am not telling everyone about the horrors you put this world through so you sure as hell won't talk about periods of Darkness that we have had." I was most certainly going to ask about all their information on us at a later time.

"Is there a way we can defeat the bull of Darkness without going to war or is that the only way? I've heard about two times Rysen was able to imprison minions of the Darkness, can't she do that again?" I asked no one in particular.

"Darkness knows the way I operate so that alone puts us in a precarious position. I'm also not as strong as I was back then. The human need to believe in magic for our powers to work. These days even shifting is for the newer generation a hard thing to do. It either hurts them or they can't manage at all. Those people have the mundane jobs since their lives are not ruled by the wolf underneath their skin. The new generation is frustrated of course but appreciates that we make them invaluable with giving them jobs we'd have difficulty with. They have provided us with a lot of information so we're all happy we worked it out that way, but it still sucks that they can't shift. The supernatural wolves are a dying race." Rysen said sadly. Seeing Rysen go from cheerful to angry to sad made me dizzy. She didn't like to admit that she wasn't powerful enough to beat this threat to her family and friends.

"We'll help any way we can. Maybe with our powers near you, you might be able to do more. I still don't know how it all works. I do know that I want to help. Even if we're natural enemies and all that. The enemy of my enemy is my friend so instead of rivals or natural enemies, let's get back talking about friends." I said to her. She put her hand on mine and smiled a little. "How can you be so optimistic?" Rysen questioned. "Because my best friend's optimism rubbed off on me." I answered while giving Stevie-Rae a knowing look. "Yeah, and besides Z has gone through a lot and she's still standing so that's gotta count for something right?" Stevie-Rae said pleasantly. Stevie-Rae Johnsen, for your daily dose of love.

Then Jaerah spoke up: "Hey Ry, you probably should've died a couple times over and you're still standing too. Don't be so bummed about your powers, the white bull cursed you and with that all the wolves. So what? We're strong. We can take this bastard. If we have to work with a couple bloodsuckers…" Rysen gave him a warning look. "… apologies, I meant couple of vampyres, then we'll make things work. Let's make that bull pay for everything bit of bullshit he has put us through." Rysen looked all her wolves in the eyes. Every time her eyes settled on a wolf, he or she would give her a nod. "Everyone, whether their a wolf, a vampyre, human, former ravenmocker or immortal, we've all been wronged by that beast. Let's end this once and for all." Thalia said fiercely. Thalia was a calm person, but she could be as intense as her alpha. Thalia was water to Rysen's fire. People tend to forget that water can be just as destructive as fire.

"Anyone any ideas on how to proceed?" Ciara, Rysen's third in command, asked all of us while looking around the table. Her gaze rested on Kalona. "You're the messenger. Care to tell us anything we didn't already know." She asked him. Ciara was a good friend because she did not accept the way Kalona had treated Rysen. I know Stevie-Rae would act the same way, maybe less harsh. "For this to work you need to find _Nishra_." I had no idea what that was. Neither did any of my friends. " _Nishra_ is the Moon Spear. It's the spear that the god of the moon, my father, used to create the wolves. If Rysen feels like another history lesson she can explain it better than anyone considering her grandfather was the first of the wolves."

"How old are you?!" My entire company exclaimed. "I've been around for 3042 years." My mouth fell open along with every mouth of my friends. "I was around when the gods still deigned this world good enough. I was around when they got tired of Earth and moved on to the next world. You can see it as parallel universes if that helps with painting a picture of their sudden departure." She took a moment and then she started to tell us about the history of the wolves. I didn't even know how vampyres were created and now we would hear the story of the creation of the shapeshifters from the granddaughter of the very first wolf. Immortality is a very strange thing.

"As the first gods started leaving the Sun and the Moon decided that this world needed a guardian or multiple guardians to keep it safe. The god of the Sun did a great many things like giving people fire. Yes, that story from the Greek mythology has pieces of actual history in it. Sun did a lot of things, but it never seemed to satisfy the both of them. America wasn't found by Columbus yet and wouldn't be for a long time but that didn't mean it didn't exist nor that there wasn't any life there. The gods took a great liking to the to humans unknown land. We believed in magic and the rest of the world was too busy trying to prove that there wasn't any magic, only science." For a moment Rysen was quiet. I guess it was to gather her thoughts. This story is more than 3 millennia old. She is more than 3 millennia old. I just couldn't wrap my mind around the immortality. Sure, vampyres lived a lot longer than humans but there was still an end. We did grow older and we could die from old age. Rysen looked, well not exactly 18 or 25 or any age, she looked ageless. Forever young and beautiful. I guess immortality isn't so bad after all.

After a small moment of absolute quiet Rysen continued. "In a quiet but prospering village there lived a man who was in harmony with everything around him. He was the village greatest warrior, the champion of the village chief, and every man wanted to be him and every woman wanted to be with him. When another war broke out, we had a great many back then so we didn't bother to name them unless they had cost us greatly, he was sent out to war. He said goodbye to his wife, the village chief daughter, and went to war. On the night of the first full moon since he had left, he was ambushed, and all his men were slaughtered. He fought fiercely but lost his life as well. Or so he thought. The Moon had been following my father for the harmony he had in his heart. The god of the Moon didn't want my father to die but Nyx was very clear that his life would soon be over. Then as fate would have it a wolf had followed to smell of death. Moon got an idea and with _Nishra_ he cut the soul from the wolf and put it in my father's body. My father got a second chance at life. He returned to us with great despair as he had still lost all his men. It was a miracle he had not died. The next full moon my father felt uneasy and when he went outside to enjoy the night's cool breeze to clear his head, he shifted into a wolf. He became the guardian of our village and soon the guardian of many people all around the village. Later on he conceived some children with his lovely wife. He found out he was immortal, that his children had the gift of shifting. He conceived more children with other woman. He spread the word about wolves, made sure his children continued the bloodline. Eventually more wolves were born from two human parents because of mutations or magic whatever you want to believe. One of his sons was a bad seed but he did decide to share his seed and so we…" She gestured to herself and her brothers. "…came around to play. Lots of drama later I became the new guardian of the wolves and over the years that became the title High Alpha or alpha of the alphas. Sun and Moon disappeared right after they had created Erebos and Kalona. Kalona was left in charge of looking after us and failed miserably and gave me even more work to do. So that's the creation of the wolves. Any more questions?"

I had to let all of that information sink in. I had seen that Damien had asked for some paper and a pen and had been taking notes. Stark and Darius seemed deep in thought. Everyone else seemed lost. My company just got an overdose of information. "Quite the story…" I started but I never finished my sentence. I didn't know what else to say.

"How about you let that all sink in. We need to find the Moon Spear. I'm sure mister 1000 Watt smile can give us a tiny hint as to where we can find it but nothing more. Why don't you go home and make sure no red vampyres are going to burn to death and we'll swap numbers so I can call you or you me about any other plans. We can come to the House of Night if you'd like to be more at home for once. We'll behave, I promise. We'll discuss the details later. Sounds like a plan?" Rysen suggested.

"Sounds like a plan." I said


End file.
